China is compounding the problems of the coal industry by failing to deal with its noxious waste products, says David Fickling for Bloomberg Opinion.
Coal, the traditional bedrock of its power system, is abundant in domestic fields. On the other hand, it’s dangerous to mine, damaging to the climate and human health, andNatural gas is cleaner and more flexible for electricity generation, but it’s relatively scarce domestically. Beijing, which is wary of dependence on foreign powers for essential commodities, imports 40 per cent of the gas it uses, a proportion that may well rise in future.
It’s also produced in coal seams, and escapes when rock is dug up. The 28.3 million tonnes of methane emitted by China’s energy sector in 2021 - all but a sliver of it coming from coal mines - was responsible for about 7 per cent of the country’s overall emissions. That carbon footprint could be reduced by about 90 per cent if the gas was simply burned for fuel, rather than released into the atmosphere..
Underground mines are also more dangerous in the event of an explosion, providing a confined space and unstable surroundings to maximise the effect of any blast. Those dangers accelerate as mines are worked harder and corners cut to achieve output targets, as has been happening in China since a power crisis caused rolling blackouts in 2021.
Regulations introduced by Beijing during the 2000s even provide incentives and penalties to encourage mine owners to drain their pits before work begins. There’s little firm evidence of success, though. Satellite monitoring indicates that waste gas has, if anything, accelerated.
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